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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has U-turned on his position on the UK’s involvement in the Iran war amid growing evidence the British public opposes the US-Israeli offensive that has driven up the price of fuel.

Last week, Farage said that “the gloves need to come off” and the UK should “do all we can to support the operation — I make that perfectly, perfectly clear”.

He added that “we need to accept that we are part of this with the Americans and the Israelis” and has called Sir Keir Starmer’s decision not to back the US from the start as “frankly pathetic”.

But on Tuesday, Farage set out a revised position, saying: “I, as leader, am saying to you, if we can’t even defend Cyprus, let’s not get ourselves involved in another foreign war.”

The U-turn comes as new polling for the More in Common think-tank found that only a quarter of the British public support the UK enabling offensive action or joining strikes on Iran, while three-quarters prefer either no involvement or strictly defensive support.

Anna Turley, Labour chair, said: “Nigel Farage spent the past week calling for escalation that would make cost of living pressures even worse. If he had been prime minister he would have already dragged our country into this war and wouldn’t be able to U-turn like he has done today.”

Farage also warned on Tuesday that it was “vital” from a political standpoint for US President Donald Trump to end the war quickly, adding that the US and Israel “must remove the nuclear threat — if they don’t do that, they will have failed”.

His comments, which came just a few days after he failed to secure an audience with Trump at Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, appear to contradict the US president, who said on Monday that he could call the war effort a “tremendous success now”, but had decided to go even further.

Conservative officials said that Kemi Badenoch, Tory leader, has not reversed her position that the RAF should have been authorised by Starmer to mount attacks on Iranian missile sites.

Farage was seeking to capitalise on surging energy prices as a result of the war in Iran to present Reform as the party with the solutions to bring down costs for working people.

He announced that his rightwing party would reverse the Labour government’s 5p increase in fuel duty and cut billions of pounds in net zero spending.

He also launched a stunt, offering to “subsidise” petrol from a filling station in Derbyshire.

However, the policy announcement was overshadowed by Reform’s contradictory and changing position on the UK’s involvement with the US-Israeli offensive in Iran.

In an opinion piece for the Sun newspaper, Farage and the party’s new Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick referred to the impact of the Iran war on oil prices, saying that “nobody in Britain voted for this war, but it’s going to be Brits who suffer”.

But critics pointed out that senior Reform figures were some of the most vocal champions of the offensive that has driven up those oil prices, while the Labour government held back support and sought to limit the UK’s involvement in the war.

Both Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice and Reform member Nadhim Zahawi, a former Tory chancellor, said that the UK should do anything in its power to support the US operation.

Farage said on Tuesday that Reform would slash spending on net zero initiatives, including heat pumps and investment in carbon capture technologies, saving the government £13.5bn a year.

The party has previously said it could save anywhere between £30bn and £45bn a year by scrapping net zero initiatives, figures that were widely contested by economists.

The party did not immediately respond to questions about how the new sum fits with its existing claims.